VIOLIN ROMANCE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 6

VIOLIN ROMANCE

Find Believed to Be a Stradivarius

LYING IN A GARAGE Having lain for more than a year among the old parts of motor-cars, a violin which is believed to be\a "Strad ’ was discovered by an Upper Hutt resident, Mr. E. Gething, in his garage yesterday. Inside the violin is pasted a faded label bearing the words "Antouius Stradivarius Cremouentis, Faciebat Anno 17,” together with a circle containing the initials “A.S.” surmounted by a small black cross. Apart from a slight fading of the varnish, the instrument is in perfect condition.

How the violin came by chance into Mr. Gething’s hands is a story which might have been conceived by a novelist. About 18 months ago one of the men in the relief workers’ camp at Akatarawa offered .Air. Getliing the violin as payment for the complete back wheel of a push cycle. Although he had no use for it, Mr. Gething accepted the violin, which he allowed to remain among the spare parts in his garage. Reading in "The Dominion” about the “Strad” bequeathed by the late Archbishop Redwood to St. Patrick’s College, Silverstream, he idly deckled to examine the violin in his garage, and to bis surprise discovered the label inside. Mr. Gething hopes that his find may prove to be a genuine Stradivarius.